Overview
Location: UK, Europe or Eastern/Southern Africa [UK, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa or Sightsavers Office locations], with extensive international travel of approximately 40%.
Contract: Two-year Fixed Term Contract
Salary: UK: £52,736 to £62,042. Other locations: Local terms and conditions apply
Hours: This is a full-time role with some flexibility around hours worked and some home working
Sightsavers is seeking an experienced programme leader to help deliver three high-profile, high-value NTD grant portfolios across multiple countries: the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF) expansion, the Global Trachoma Elimination Fund (GTEF) and the GiveWell grant. With a particular focus on Ethiopia, this influential role sits at the centre of complex partnerships involving ministries of health, global donors, consortium partners and implementing organisations. You will combine strategic oversight with disciplined delivery, ensuring that plans, budgets, risks, technical actions and reporting remain aligned across trachoma and the other preventive-chemotherapy NTDs.
Responsibilities
Reporting to the Director, NTD Programme Delivery, you will lead programme planning and oversight for Ethiopia and may support other countries as required. You will work closely with government, partners, technical advisers, finance colleagues and country teams to keep delivery on track, resolve complex issues and ensure decisions are informed by accurate evidence.
What you will be doing
Provide management support and technical guidance to national NTD programmes across the GTEF, RLMF and GiveWell portfolios.
Lead accurate annual planning, budgeting and in-year revisions with ministries of health and Sightsavers teams.
Build trusted relationships and consensus across government, donors, consortium partners and implementing organisations.
Oversee Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement (SAFE) implementation and alignment with preferred trachoma practices, national NTD strategies, health-system strengthening and sustainability priorities.
Monitor progress, expenditure, risks, agreements, due diligence, logframes, contract closure and improvement actions.
Support elimination dossier preparation and transition towards sustainable health-system ownership.
Manage consultants and international non-governmental organisation (INGO) partners, produce timely evidence-based reports and escalate critical issues appropriately.
Represent Sightsavers externally, contribute to funding proposals and deputise for the Director when required.
The role requires international travel for approximately 40% of the year, including to programme locations where transport, accommodation, infrastructure or connectivity may be limited. Sightsavers provides destination-specific briefings and appropriate travel, security, health and reasonable-adjustment support. Please read thejob description for further details
Skills and Experience
To succeed in this role you will need
- Very significant experience in international development, including delivery of complex, high-profile programmes.
- Extensive programme or project management experience in the private, humanitarian or development sectors.
- Technical understanding of the five preventive-chemotherapy NTDs, including disease management, disability and inclusion; mass drug administration; disease-specific assessments; and dossier development.
- Detailed understanding of preferred trachoma practices and in-depth experience of the sensitivities of working in countries such as Ethiopia.
- Demonstrable success in multi-partner planning, budgeting, risk management and delivery.
- Excellent influencing, analytical, reporting and problem-solving skills.
- A master’s degree in public health or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- Fluency in English and in French, Spanish or Portuguese.
- The ability to travel extensively, paticularly to Ethiopia and other programme-specific countries
- A clear commitment to disability inclusion, equality of opportunity and collaborative working.
- Desirable: Experience of supporting elimination dossiers, health-system strengthening, transition planning, or programmes in low- and middle-income country contexts.
- This is an involved role, please read the full job description for further details
Next Steps
To apply for this exciting opportunity, please complete an application via our recruitment portal. We are particularly interested in learning of your motivations for applying. Please note that there will be an expectation that you can occasionally visit the relevant Sightsavers office but programme-related travel will be a vital part of this role.
We anticipate that remote interviews will take place in early November and the evaluation process will include a presentation to be completed by shortlisted candidates as part of this.
As an equal opportunity employer, we actively encourage applications from all sections of the community. Sightsavers is a Disability Confident Leader and qualified people with a disability are particularly encouraged to apply.
Sightsavers is an employer that does not tolerate any form of harassment and has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. All potential candidates will be subjected to rigorous background checks and controls.
In line with its commitment to safe programming and recruitment, Sightsavers participates in the inter-agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS) administered by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. Through collaboration with other MDS members, Sightsavers aims to ensure that there are no sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment issues relating to potential new hires and that we can respond systematically to checks from fellow MDS members. This ensures our work is accountable, delivered to a high standard and supports safeguarding across the development and humanitarian fields.
Job description provided by Sightsavers.
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